On the go and no time to finish that story right now? Your News is the place for you to save content to read later from any device. Register with us and content you save will appear here so you can access them to read later.

Public health researcher Associate Professor Nick Wilson said the study aimed to help disaster preparations and civil defence.

"New Zealand is a country subject to a wide range of natural disasters and some disasters such as storms and floods may be becoming more common with climate change," Professor Wilson said.

"There is also evidence that some families run very low on stored food or make no disaster preparations at all and this research may encourage people to be better prepared because of the very low cost."

The research also looked at the cost of a collection of foods which did not require cooking, such as food that could be eaten directly from a can or after soaking.

The cost of these foods was slightly higher at $3.67 a day to provide enough energy for one man.

Finally, the study looked at the cost with the assumption of perfect storage conditions and no food spoilage, "as might be expected by a government agency doing food storage".

The cost was $1.93 a day.

"Overall we were surprised at how low these food costs were and so it seems that storing the recommended three days per person is likely to be very feasible for nearly all families," Ms Carter said.

"But sometimes it is not possible for people with damaged homes to access their food stores and so the foods we identified could also be the cheapest ones for civil defence authorities or the army to supply in a disaster situation."